27/08/2013 13:09
Syrian opposition: No Geneva peace talks after 'chemical attack'
The Syrian National Coalition, the official opposition to President Bashar Assad, has called off the long-delayed peace summit in Geneva, following an alleged chemical attack last week, Russia Today reported.
“We refused to speak about Geneva after what's happened. We must punish this dictator, Bashar the Chemist we call him, and then we can discuss Geneva," coalition Secretary General Badr Jamous told Reuters in Istanbul.
The Syrian National Coalition was meeting with international opposition backers Friends of Syria in Istanbul, nominally to discuss the upcoming peace talks.
Opposition leaders have blamed Bashar Assad for unleashing Wednesday’s chemical assault on a rebel-controlled Damascus suburb, which Doctors without Borders (MSF) says took at least 355 lives.
Since then, Arab League-United Nations envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who would have mediated the negotiations has attempted to salvage the conference, saying that the incident proved “that no military solution is possible.”